Podcast I

With this I initiate the first of what may or may not be a series of reports on my life as a pod. Seinfeld fans will recall the episode where Jerry informs Kramer that he's a pod, not a normal human being. That resonated with me (and my wife, who knows me all too well).

I'm not sure when I first began to suspect I was a pod, but it was fairly early on. And although I am comfortable living among the humans, there are times when I just don't seem to get it.

For example, what is the attraction of reality television? I ask this question, even though I lack any direct experience of the phenomenon. Not only have I never watched any of these programs. My only knowledge of them comes from news reports and previews. But that alone has been sufficient to warn me off. My reaction has always been boredom rather than curiosity. Why do I want to watch so-called reality on television? I live in reality all the time.

But wait. I tell a lie. I have watched a reality TV show. No, not the 24-hour coverage of the last presidential election. I'm thinking of that one about the Louds, the dysfunctional family with the gay son named Lance. I think it was called An American Family. It was a documentary shot in 1971 that aired on PBS in 1973. There were a couple of sequels, one in 1983 and one in 2003, which I did not see. But these alone should have been enough to warn us off reality television forever.

Of course, I know that reality television is no more about reality than Seinfeld; in fact, probably less. Real reality TV would be a bunch of humans sitting around watching television, a sort of infinite regression like the infinite cat project.